The Aussies were seriously lacking in skullduggery at the Adelaide Test last weekend. But that didn’t stop us from having a good time at the Adelaide Oval. Even if it did seem to involve a full day of watching England’s mercenary South African batsman Kevin Pietersen spend the whole day smacking Australian bowlers around the pitch.
Oh, wait, that was exactly what it involved…
I know that most of my readers aren’t cricket fans but I choose to believe that this is due to ignorance rather than indifference*. I’m firmly convinced that if you are a generally a sports fan and someone takes the time to explain the Byzantine rules of cricket to you that you will become a fan of the game. If you’re not a sports fan, well I can’t help you.
Yes, it is slow paced. Yes, it can go on for days – by design. Yes, you can score 500 runs and still lose. All of these things are true and they are only a few of the things that make cricket such a compelling sport.
And The Ashes? Well, the Ashes is cricket at its finest. Every couple of years since for the last 120 or so, the finest that Australia and England have taken the field for the summer to battle over the eponymous trophy, purportedly the ashes of a bail that represented the death of English cricket. A demise brought on by the first defeat of the English side by filthy colonials in 1882.
Over a century later, it is still the biggest sporting rivalry between England and her erstwhile colony. So much so that for several glorious weeks in December and January, ‘the cricket’ rules. Staff was pretty scarce on the ground at work on the first day of the Adelaide test last Friday and those of us cursed with meetings or other unavoidable work engagements spent a lot of time refreshing scoreboards on our phones.
Having lived in each country, having one son born in each, I have the advantage of neutrality in the series. This may be all the more advantageous this time around, because it looks as if barracking for Australia is going to be a hard slog.
And if all this doesn’t convince you to care about The Ashes, well, many of us know that The Ashes are “vitally important for the past, present and future safety of the Galaxy”.
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*That’s right, insulting your readers is bound to keep them coming back.
There is, perhaps unsurprisingly, very little good music about cricket. But Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy managed to put together a cracker of a side project concept album. The Duckworth Lewis Method is remarkably uncampy and a good listen for both the cricket fan and music lover alike. The Duckworth Lewis Method is available from 
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by headbang8
13 Dec 2010 at 23:31
No, it’s indifference.
headbang8´s last blog ..Weights Watchers
by Jacob
13 Dec 2010 at 23:40
I understand cricket, not so much that I could carry on a conversation about it with a fan, but enough that I can begin to explain it to someone who doesn’t know anything about it. The only problem is that I can’t really manage to pay attention to baseball, a sport near the center of my own culture, so I really doubt I’d ever be able to get into following cricket.
Rugby, yes. I love me some rugby.
Jacob´s last blog ..Lets Talk About Something Else
by muskrat
13 Dec 2010 at 23:58
Where does the Tide figure into cricket? I need a frame of reference here.
muskrat´s last blog ..a lesson
by mickey
14 Dec 2010 at 02:08
Jumping off from Jacob’s comment, I’m the sort of person who actually enjoys the allegedly slower pace of baseball (I say allegedly because a football broadcast has far more commercial breaks and ad nauseum replays), so I’m sure I’d enjoy Cricket upon deciphering the rules and objectives. Also, I find the old-timey look of the Oval appealing.
mickey´s last blog ..Why Haven’t the Ad People At DayQuil Jumped On This
by Jamie
14 Dec 2010 at 04:02
Why do you have a sombrero? (And, yes, it is indifference)
by courtney
14 Dec 2010 at 11:53
I understand very little of your first paragraph, but I think I’ll start telling people they’re “lacking in skullduggery” just for the fun of it.
courtney´s last blog ..Paranormal Psychology
by Monty
14 Dec 2010 at 20:49
This is a bad time for Oz Cricket.. I mean, come on, they are even talking about asking Warne to come outta retirement. And he’s almost as old as the the trophy.
Next up will be Steven Waugh, Merv Hughes and what not.
I predict a complete whitewash.
Monty´s last blog ..Face Palm
by jen
15 Dec 2010 at 06:03
as a sports fan, and a fan of arcane rules, i quite like cricket. my problem is that because i get to watch it so infrequently, i forget all the rules in between match viewings.
well, that’s less a problem for me than for my husband, who has to answer all my questions over and over again
by ellie
15 Dec 2010 at 15:43
I love the sound crickets make when they rub their little wings together.
by aish
15 Dec 2010 at 17:53
zack is definitely going to be a cricketer. nice photos …makes me homesick , i can almost feel the sun and the dry heat through the photos.
by Nigel
17 Dec 2010 at 07:26
I’m an Australian. As a kid I loved playing backyard cricket. As a kid I loved watching the cricket on TV – I’d become glued to the screen. But as an adult, albeit a gay adult, I’ve lost interest in the game. I think it’s Ricky Ponting’s fault.
Nigel´s last blog ..WikiLeaks are not terrorists…or perhaps they are